During a special meeting on June 18, the Proviso Township High Schools District 209 Board of Education voted unanimously to hire Chicago-based Gilbane Building Company as construction manager to oversee the first phase of construction projects in the district’s facilities master plan. Board member Sam Valtierrez was absent.
Gilbane was among 10 firms that submitted bids. District officials picked five of those firms to present during a facilities committee meeting in April before narrowing the search to three finalists. The board ranked Gilbane the highest among the three finalists.
During their April 30 presentation, Gilbane expressed the “importance of diversity and inclusion” and highlighted their idea of ‘hire Proviso,’ which would assist in engaging the local community to be included in the project, according to the minutes of that meeting.
The firm’s contract runs through 2023 and entails a preconstruction fee of $117,000. During the preconstruction phase, Gilbane will evaluate the district’s master plan, and come up with a more precise construction schedule and more precise cost estimates.
So far, district officials estimate that the preconstruction phase could run until December 2021. Construction work could last from June 2020 through August 2023. But that timeline is subject to change depending on what Gilbane discovers during its preconstruction vetting process.
The district will pay Gilbane $2.7 million in staffing costs and a $1.2 million professional fee, which reflects 1.9 percent of an estimated $64 million in total construction costs — a figure that could change. The district will also set aside $555,000 for general liability insurance. The total contract cost amounts to around $4.7 million.
As previously reported, the range of capital improvements in the master plan runs the gamut, from life-safety maintenance projects, electrical upgrades and air-conditioning installation to classroom and lab upgrades and repositioning athletic fields.
In January, the D209 board voted to go forward with construction projects in the facilities master plan.
The district’s Financial Oversight Panel approved the contract with Gilbane last month.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com
